Rafael Nadal vs. Alexander Zverev – Prediction – ATP Paris (France) 7.11.2020

H2H: Rafael Nadal v Alexander Zverev – comparison.

Expect Alexander Zverev to get the better of Rafael Nadal on the indoor hard court once again, considering his form in the run-up to his week (11-0 on the surface) and the Spaniard’s shaky performance in Paris over the last few days.

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Top seed Rafael Nadal was made to work hard for the win by compatriot Pablo Carreno Busta in the quarterfinal of Paris Masters on Friday. World #15 Pablo Carreno Busta deservedly won the first set 6-4 but failed to convert any of the three consecutive breakpoint chances that he created in the very first game of the second set, which proved to be too costly in the end, 4-6 7-5 6-1. It was world #2 Rafael Nadal’s second comeback win of the campaign as he needed a similar effort against fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in the second round. Playing his first match on indoor hard courts in nearly a year, Rafael Nadal made a slow start to the match and got his first break of serve only in the deciding set, 4-6 7-6 6-4.

Rafael Nadal is currently on a ten-match winning streak on the main tour, and all those ten wins have come in Paris. He came into this campaign after winning the 20th slam of his career in the French Open, where he scored a morale-boosting win over the world #1 and his arch-rival Novak Djokovic in the championship match, 6-0 6-2 7-5. Moreover, the 34-year-old Spaniard has won his last eight matches on non-clay surfaces as well. He lifted his first title of the 2020 season on the hard courts in Acapulco this February, where he did not drop a set all week.

Despite winning 35 Masters 1000 titles so far in his hugely successful career, Rafael Nadal is yet to get his hands on the Paris Masters title. However, this is probably his best of ending his drought in this tournament, considering the absence of some big names such as Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Dominic Thiem. The former runner-up of Paris Masters, Rafael Nadal was forced to pull out of his semifinal contest against Denis Shapovalov here in 2019. He hasn’t lost a completed match in Paris Masters since 2015 but failed to win a set in his recent two semifinal matches in this tournament against Novak Djokovic in 2009 and David Ferrer (current coach of Alexander Zverev) in 2013.

Alexander Zverev fought back from 4-5 0-30* down in the second set to get the job done in straight sets against the dangerous Stan Wawrinka, who ended the 11-match unbeaten streak of Andrey Rublev in the previous round. The top-ranked German would be relieved after wrapping up the match in straight sets as he needed three sets and over three hours to overcome Adrian Mannarino in a grueling round of 16 contest on Thursday, 7-6 6-7 6-4.

Since losing to Dominic Thiem in the semifinal of the Australian Open in January, the Paris Masters semifinal debutant Alexander Zverev has played three semifinal matches on the main tour this year and managed to win them all against Pablo Carreno Busta in the US Open (runner-up), Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in Cologne 1 (champion) and Jannik Sinner in Cologne 2 (champion). Alexander Zverev has got a terrific record against Novak Djokovic (3-4) and Roger Federer (5-5) but failed against Rafael Nadal five out of six times. That said, the German did manage to win the pair’s recent as well as the only previous meeting on indoor hard court, which came in the ATP Tour Finals in 2019.

Match Info.